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Kenneth Merritt

Born into a musical family in Munich Germany in 1968, Toby was influenced by both parents who were established figures in the Munich music scene with their group, “The Jazz Kids”. His Danish father is a clarinet player and a pilot. His German mother is a psychotherapist and composer/pianist who tours the UK and Europe with Brian Carrick's jazz band, the Algiers Stompers.

At age four, Toby was expected to study banjo and join the "Jazz Kids" but he took to playing the piano instead. By the time he was seven, he and his brother Jens had formed their own band, the “Gad Rollers”, and played original rock'n roll compositions during intermissions of their parents' gigs. The newly found recognition around town led to performances in various radio and TV shows. Before long, Toby and Jens scored their first recording deal with hit-producer Gunther Mende, the writer of the Celine Dion smash hit The Power of Love, however the deal was turned down by their parents, who felt education was more important.

Though too young to get into most clubs at age 13, Toby and Jens were no strangers to the live music scene in Munich. Weekly gigs in bars, concerts in open-air summer festivals and shows in legendary live clubs such as the "Domicile" spread the word, and Munich hit producer Tony Monn showed interest in the brothers. Tony handed over his state-of-the-art recording studio to Toby and Jens whenever he was out of town. The young men were able to spend endless days and nights in a state-of-the-art studio writing, arranging and recording their first three record releases.

In 1986, when Frank Farian, Germany’s most successful producer (No Mercy, Boney M, Milli Vanilli,...) was looking for new talent, a mutual friend turned him on to the Gad brothers’ material. The next day the boys flew to Frankfurt and thus started a seven-year collaboration with Frank. One week later they found three of their songs on Milli Vanilli's debut album, which later went multi-platinum.

Farian recognized the young men’s potential as artists and produced Toby and Jens’ first album “Q”, which was followed by a live tour. Funk legend George Clinton liked the record so much that he spent a full day jamming with the brothers and later invited Toby and Jens to perform two songs on stage with his P-funk band.

In 1990, Toby met Mauritian singer Jacqueline Nemorin. This became the beginning of a 10-year collaboration between the two. Together with Farian, Toby produced Nemorin’s first album “The Creole Dance” on BMG.

In 1994, Toby signed on with manager Klaus Frers (Daydream Music Supervizing) and produced Nemorin’s second album for EMI Europe. It was also Klaus who moved the duo into music production for dozens of successful TV shows, commercials and movie soundtracks. Toby and Jacqueline wrote and produced the title-song for the movie “Neverending Story III”, the music for two popular daily TV talk-shows that stayed on air for four years, and the single "The Magic of the Fall", which went on to win the BDA Gold Award in L.A. for best TV trailer concept.

In 1998, Toby was hired by the Spanish producer Rafael Perez to work on Enrique Iglesias’ third album. That same year Toby signed a deal with Joost Van Os, former head of Polygram, and Sony ATV which lead to songs on the albums of Ruth Jacott (Gold), Oli P (Gold) and Nino de Angelo (Top-30).

The album title song and hit single "Unspoken" of Christian Platinum artist Jaci Velasquez, written by Toby, Madeline Stone and O.Hatch, managed to stay half a year in the Christian Billboard top 20 single charts and was re-released on the Billboard #2 album WOW Greatest Hits 2004.

Meanwhile Toby had substantial hits back overseas. “Damn I Think I Love You” stayed at #1 for seven weeks and became the most sold single 2001 in Holland. The #1 StarMaker album with two of Toby's songs went triple platinum. Sita’s debut single “Happy" was at #1 for two weeks and remained in the top five for two months. The song was also released in the US on the "Wild Thornberries" soundtrack, followed by the #1 album of Sita.

After a period of time running from door to door at record labels, publishing companies, music law firms and managements, Toby was given the chance to work with MTV host Willa Ford. Their single "A Toast to Men" became a #40 radio single, appearing in the hit movie "Barbershop 2".

The collaboration with David and William Derella from the DAS management team resulted in a significant co-publishing deal with Cherrylane Music Publishing and record deals for several of Toby's artists.

In August 2005, Interscope Records released Texan teen sensation Kaci Brown's album "Instigator", entirely developed, produced and co-written by Toby. R&B group Fatty Koo has an album on Columbia records on which every song is produced and co-written by Toby. He produced and co-wrote songs on the album of the Australian twins The Veronicas, who scored the biggest US new comer record deal of the year on Warner Bros. Records / Sire records and went double platinum in Australia. Columbia records also signed Toby's protege Meleni. Their song "Happy" can be found in the Will Smith hit movie Hitch. Meleni and Toby co-wrote the song "Drop it on me" on Ricky Martin's 2005 album "Life". Another artist that Toby developed for years, Lola, released her single "No Strings" on Warner Bros. Records / Sobe which spent 4 months on the Billboard Dance charts, peaking at #2.

In 2006, Toby opened a second studio with five interns, expanding his production company "Strawberrybee Music" and his publishing company "Gad Songs". Toby produced the entire Blue Note records album of Elizabeth Withers, who starred in Broadway musical "The Color Purple", and contributed a song on Fergie's platinum selling album "The Dutchess". He also collaborated with then 13 year old Emmy nominated actress/singer Keke Palmer on her 2007 debut album on Atlantic Records and produced a song for the second season of hit Disney sitcom Hannah Montana.